


Entrac’te: Duty’s Love

by B_Radley



Series: Rise and Fight Again [35]
Category: Star Wars: Rebellion Era, Star Wars: Shattered Empire
Genre: Duty, Families of Choice, Family, Gen, Love, Responsibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 22:51:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15375144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B_Radley/pseuds/B_Radley
Summary: Why are we here? Why do we do what we do? Why do we keep fighting? Two Queens learn from a mother and a father of choice and of blood.





	1. Of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/gifts).



> From a prompt by Merfilly: parents giving a heart to heart to children in my ‘verse. Well, I had two different ideas; so here they are. One part originally posted on tumblr.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Elector learns about the true meaning of love.

**Serenno**  
**The Forest of Reconciliation**  
**Fifteen years after the fall of the Republic**

Dani Faygan breathes in the rich, cedary smell of the trees in the small grove of trees. Her eyes lock on the wooden chimes moving slowly in the intermittent breeze. The slight tinkle of the chimes is combined with an almost eerie whistling noise; an etherial flute playing over the cool air. 

She shivers slightly in her gown. She looks down at the white garment, the tri-colored sash over her crimson shoulders and around her waist. She sighs, running her fingers over her face. If she had her choice for this day of days, she would either be clad in one of her dress uniforms. Either that of a serving officer in the rebel fleet, or the more ornate dark green frockcoat uniform of the Honorable Company—the guardians of Corellia’s royalty and Elder House in whatever form it had taken over the years. 

She grins. _Come to think of it, the dress uniform of a rebel cell just means that I wear a cleaner shirt._

Her eyes lock with that of a younger woman, standing near the stone altar, probably wishing she could be elsewhere. The young woman does wear the Company’s uniform on her thin frame, the insignia of a junior Captain on her shoulders. A bit more rank than her usual ship’s lieutenancy, for this occasion. For her grandmother’s world, rather than her birthworld of Alderaan. 

Dani laughs as Meglann Florlin, mess officer and second-best pilot on an ex-pirate ship, blows her a kiss.

Dani looks at her chronometer. _That girl could be late for her own funeral_ , she thinks.

She looks at another young woman, chafing at the collar of her dress coat. Like the rest of them, she was most comfortable in fighting clothes, in her case a green flight suit. 

Dani raises an eyebrow, points to her chronometer. Talle shrugs, her one dark blue eye and its companion amber rolling skyward. Dani mimics her expression, then closes her eyes. 

She nods, then turns and walks out of the grove, towards a more secluded example.

As she turns onto the path, moving easily and silently through the trees, she thinks of the path that had led them to this moment. A path begun ten years ago, when the heir, the Covenant had agonized over taking up his birthright as the symbol of Corellia, rather than its Protector. An ascension that would take him away from the embryonic fight against the darkness; would take him away from another warrior—a young woman who shared two of his heritages with him. One of a few remaining in at least one of those heritages; the peacekeeper, rather than the hunter.

She smiles as she sees the slightly taller figure kneeling on a cloth set before another small totem. The family-shrine of her mother’s people on this world.

Dani walks up behind her and places her arms around the shoulders of her daughter-of-the heart, resting her chin in the dark, honey-gold hair.

“Hey,” she says.

Jamelyn doesn’t respond. Dani reaches up and touches her cheek, her fingers coming away with drops of moisture. She pulls Jamelyn to her feet and around, bringing the younger woman’s head down to her shoulder. Dani marvels at Jamelyn’s height, a few inches taller than she is, even at sixteen versus her own forty. 

“What’s up, my love?” she asks.

Jamelyn remains silent for a moment. 

Dani gives her the moment, pulling her hand up and stroking Jamelyn’s short bob. 

“I don’t know if I can do this,” the Elector-Presumptive says. “I enjoy just being a pilot. Smoking Talle’s ass in an A-Wing,” she finishes. Dani feels the smirk against her shoulder. 

“Yep, my girl. There’s the Corellian half.”

They both giggle for a moment, then fall silent again. “Is it because you don’t want to do it, or you think that you can’t do it?”

“Little of both, I think,” Jamelyn replies. 

Dani pushes back from her, moving her hands to the girl’s shoulders. She drinks in the sight of her daughter, clad in a green gown, a gold diadem in her hair; a purple sash around her waist.

The Presumptive-Signet is hanging from a heavy gorget over her bare shoulders and arms. A Signet she would exchange for a slightly different one today—at least for an instant. An Ascension in abeyance, until the instant the girl would set foot again on the Eldest of the Five Brothers. 

Dani shakes her slightly, then kisses her forehead. She tastes the slight residue of the oil that had been used just before dawn, in a ceremony millennia old.

“You think nobody else has ever been scared?”

Jamelyn’s eyes flash. “I didn’t say I was scared—,” she starts. 

Dani grins. “You don’t have to. I know exactly how you’re feeling,” she says. 

The gray eyes widen. “You? I’ve never seen you afraid in your life.”

Dani looks down, then smiles, sadly. “That’s because you didn’t see me dealing with having to suddenly be a substitute mother for a sad little girl. A little girl who had just lost her father and thought she was going to lose her mother.”

Jamelyn sits down heavily on the cloth. Her eyes are wide as she looks at Dani. “I never knew,” she whispers. “I never knew that I caused such pain.”

Dani sits next to her, pulling her close to her, the fragrant hair resting against her nose and cheek. “You shouldn’t have known—couldn’t have known. It was my own problem. I was worried that I couldn’t replace your mother.”

Jamelyn starts to speak. Dani holds her hand up. “I know. I realized that I didn’t have to. I just had to love you.” She feels the tears forming in her eyes. “I realized—,” she starts. She falls silent, gathering herself. 

Jamelyn kisses her cheek, hoping to give her time.

“I realized the instant you walked through my door that I would love you no matter how long you were with me.

“What’s that saying that I’ve taught you about my mother’s people? About why we are the way that we are.” Dani says. 

“Everything that we do is about love,” Jamelyn says, her smile growing.

Dani grins. “Yep. Could be true about rebels, as well. I don’t think there’s one of us here, who doesn’t love something. Who isn’t willing to fight and die for the love of something.

“Did your Uncle Jame tell you about your great-grandmother, Ina? The last Elector?”

“A bit,” Jamelyn replies. “She was the Covenant who became the Elector when her husband died because Grandfather Jamestyn was too young.”

Dani nods. “My father said she didn’t hesitate, even though she thought she wasn’t fit. She always only wanted to be Covenant—the fighter, the protector. She knew that she couldn’t ask anyone else to take the burden, least of all a two-year old. There were enemies of the family circling around, waiting for a fall.”

Jamelyn sits listening, rapt. 

Dani forges ahead. “She did what she had to do, out of love. Love for her son, love for Corellia. But most of all, love for her husband and what he believed in.”

Dani can see her daughter’s eyes focus on the chimes. The gears are turning. She worries her lip, then closes her eyes. Dani holds her breath. 

Without opening them, Jamelyn says quietly, “I wish Jame was here.”

“I know. I thought he would be here. But I think he’s still on Takodana.”

Jamelyn’s face crumples. Dani knows that she sees a powerful huntress. Their Fulcrum, Ahsoka Tano. She sees her lashing out at her hunt-brother.

Pushing him and her other loved ones away. Going to face something alone. 

Through her empathic gift, Dani feels her daughter of the heart’s conflicting emotions of love and anger. Love for them both, but anger at Ahsoka. 

Dani has made her peace. She knows that the warrior did what she felt that she had to do.

Out of that same love.

She notices that Jamlyn’s eyes are opened, determined. 

“I choose the Signet, freely” she says. “ _Abeeyeh_ ,” she finishes. _Mother_.

Both women rise. They embrace tightly as footsteps sound. They look up and smile.

Drop, the oversized former GAR trooper stands at the entrance. He offers his arm to Jamelyn. She takes it, kissing his cheek. 

“You ready, Hopeless?” he asks, using the nickname that his daughter, her best friend, had coined for her. A play on what everyone called her with some hushed reverence or irreverence, depending on their relationship to her.

_The Hope of Our World._ Always capitalized, even when spoken.

She nods to him. “Ready as I’ll ever be, Uncle Drop,” she says. 

Dani grins as she hears a familiar tread. One they had not heard in weeks, if not months. 

Jame Blackthorn, the Covenant of Corellia stands on the trail. He is clothed properly in his Company uniform, an unfamiliar full beard on his face—one that is not quite the Wookiee look he sported in his youth.

One with much more gray in it than even a few weeks ago. Jamelyn shakes loose from Drop and walks over to him. He pulls her against his chest, his lips against her hair. 

“Your Grace,” he says, the crooked grin playing over his features. 

Dani is relieved that the expression reaches his eyes. 

He releases her, then bows. “I am at your disposal, Elector,” he says. 

She touches his head. “I’m pleased, my Covenant,” she replies. She breaks from ritual. 

“Are you okay, Uncle?”

“I am, Jamelyn. I live. I have hope—no, more than that, I have faith.”

Dani walks up and kisses him. “More than that, you have love.” She half-sobs. “Even from her.”

He looks down. “I know,” he whispers. 

Dani and Jame watch as her escort begins to walk towards the altar. After a moment, Dani takes Jame’s arm in hers and they follow. 

Jamelyn, 457th of her Line, walks to accept her destiny.

For love.


	2. Of Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unbeknownst to her, the newly elected Queen of Naboo learns from family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted on tumblr in slightly different form.

**Naboo**  
**The Palace of Theed**  
**Twenty Years after the Fall of the Republic**

The Queen stalks out of the audience chamber into the anteroom of her apartments. She lifts the heavy headdress and tosses it on an end table with all of the dignity of an affronted fifteen-year old. She clinches her fists as she tries to control her breathing. The arrogance of the Imperial Moff, telling her that it would be _inadvisable_ for her to continue her flying lessons. 

The previous Moff, Panaka had never shied away from taking her up in his own ship when she was barely ten. She wonders if the insurgents who had bombed his palace knew what they were doing to Naboo.

Saw Gerrerra’s partisans had not particularly cared. She picks up the headdress to hurl it across the room. The ornamentation is half-way back over her shoulder when she realizes that she is not alone in the room. 

A human male of medium height stands framed against the large windows at the end of the chamber. He gazes at her silently, his mouth quirked in a crooked grin. He appears to be in his mid-forties, about her mother’s age. She stares balefully at him, giving him her best Queen-look, practiced for all of twenty minutes since her installation. 

He doesn’t appear to quake in his boots. Instead, his smile grows to his eyes, a particularly warm shade of green—very similar to her own in a particular light, even down to the hints of gold, but without her elongated shape—the gift from her mother.

She gasps as she sees the wicked scars on his forehead. Three of them that come together in the center of his tanned skin to form a triple-armed, abstract star. 

She makes to call a guard as she realizes that he is heavily armed and wearing some sort of dark green armor under a long black coat. 

The door opens before she can speak. She relaxes as her mother walks in.

“Ah,” Hana Shaizan says. “I see you two have met.”

“Not exactly,” the intruder says in a slight mix of accents—a Corellian drawl with just a hint of something else— _Mandalorian_ , she thinks. 

“I think her Majesty was about to summon the guards and have me flogged.”

In spite of herself, Sosha, elected Queen of Naboo, giggles. 

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Bryne,” Hana says warmly. “Her bark is worse than her bite, right now.”

The man laughs at Sosha’s surely thunderous expression. She relaxes and looks at her mother. “I don’t know if I want to do this or not,” she says. 

Hana walks over and takes her in her arms. “I know. But Naboo needs someone to counteract the Moff. He is getting more oppressive. With the destruction of Alderaan and the victory at Yavin, the people think you are the person to lead them, love,” her mother says. 

Sosha looks at the marbled floor. “I know. But I don’t think that I can. He’s not even going to let me keep up my flying lessons.”

She sees the man smile wistfully, then let pain wash over his features for a fleeting second. 

Hana notices her staring at him. “Love, this is Mr. Covenant. I’ve known him for years.”

Sosha’s eyes narrow as her mother looks away. She has never seen Hana Yung-Shaizan look away from her before. She shakes the thought away, then turns her attention to Covenant. She extends her hand, with all of the dignity she can bring to bear. He takes it and bows his head over it. 

“I think that you can do it,” she hears in a soft voice. 

“What?” she asks incredulously. 

“I think that you can do it. Anyone that’s the daughter of Hana Yung can pull anything off.”

She stares at him. He raises his left hand, begins to tick off his fingers. “Captain of the Naboo Royal Guard. Republic Navy fighter pilot. _Dai-Lin_ of the biggest financial concern in this sector,” he says using the term for the “Big Shot” of the Exalted and Noble House. “You got some strength and backbone behind you, Majesty.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Sosha says after a moment. “I just don’t know if family history is enough.”

Her eyes widen as the grin flows to his face again. She stares at him. _There’s something about him_ , she thinks. _I can’t place it._

“I know a bit about family history, dear,” he starts. “I’m sorry, your Majesty,” he says. “Forgive my impertinence.”

She makes a dismissing motion. “Tell me more, Mr. Covenant,” Sosha says. 

Hana steps up. “I’m afraid not,” she says. “Mr. Covenant has a pressing engagement elsewhere.”

Covenant’s eyes narrow at Hana. For a moment, Sosha can see the contest of wills. Finally, he turns back to her. “She’s right, Majesty. You don’t need to hear a bunch of old stories.”

The door opens. A younger woman in civilian clothing, with a flight jacket slung over her shoulder, walks in. He holds up his hand. He looks Sosha directly in her eyes. “I’ll leave you with this. Family’s important. Whether it’s a family of choice or of blood, where you come from is important. It can be your guiding star, or it can be a deep sea anchor. It’s up to you to choose which—what you take from your family’s love; what you leave. Always remember that, Sosha,” he says. 

Oddly, she feels her heart beating faster at his words. She wipes tears away. “Do you have a family, Mr. Covenant?”

He looks at the newcomer, who gazes back at him with a pair of now-sparkling brown eyes. “I do. All around me,” he says. He pulls the woman over to him.

“Queen Sosha, known as Soruna, but born as Shaizan, this is Commander Meglann Florlin. She had a little mishap with a few stormtroopers last year and hasn’t been taking care of herself. She needs a place to recuperate.” He grins. “She’s also a fair pilot. I think she might be willing to demonstrate a few things for you. Meantime, your mother will work on circumventing the Moff so you can finish your certification.”

Florlin looks at him, then rolls her eyes. “A fair pilot? I can still smoke your—,” she starts. 

“Language, Hammer. Language.” He looks at Sosha. “Someone very dear to me—someone who is family of choice and by marriage taught her to fly. She was a little older than you are now, when she started.” He grins. “Her teacher’s a much better pilot than me.”

Sosha looks at her mother, who nods. “Go with the Commander, dear. Mr. Covenant and I have something to discuss.”

Meglann looks at Covenant. “I’ll take good care of her, Jame,” she says. Sosha’s eyes widen at the name.

The man and her mother are out the door before she can ask the question.

+=+=+=+=+=

Jame Blackthorn stops and turns to Hana. He pulls her to him in a deep hug. “I haven’t used my title as a name in years, Hana,” he says. 

“I know. It’s better this way.” She looks up at him. “We’ll take care of your officer, Admiral,” she says. “She’ll get the rest she needs.”

“I hope so. Our doctor says she may still lose the use of her arm. But if she rests and lets Sosha do most of the flying, it’ll help put it off.”

His eyes tear as he thinks of how she had received that wound. His explanation of a bout with stormtroopers was only half true. It was what had led them that had caused her wound. With a bladed weapon from his past.

He looks back at the door where the pilot and the Queen had exited. Hana lifts her hand to his cheek. 

“Sosha has a lot of good qualities that didn’t come from me, Jame,” she says. She smirks. “Things other than being a smartass and a gambler.”

“Probably her best qualities,” he says, his own grin opening up. “That and her good looks.”

She punches him in the chest, but her laughter rises with his. 

As it fades, Jame Blackthorn looks out the window as his daughter walks with his friend.

He thinks of his losses; of one on a dying world, but still in this plane. Fighting to find her way out of the Force and its mysteries. 

He smiles as he thinks of his gains as well. Of the rest of his family, both found and familiar.

He feels his seldom-used Force sense swell with the blue-orange light of that wayward warrior. She laughs with him in his mind.

_Family._


End file.
